Bush Banishes Nursing Home Neglect Evidence

Just when you think it can't get any worse -- it does.

George W. Bush left office with a low approval rating and a path of destruction. Some of it is widely known and some very secretive.

This cover-up has to do with nursing homes and nursing home abuse and shielding evidence of abuse and neglect from the very people who need it to plead their case in court.

What Bush did was designate Medicare and Medicaid contractors as federal employees in order to prevent their information from being found or heard.

So your grandmother is in a nursing home and she has many bedsores; some which become infected. Finally, she gets real medical hospital care but it's too late; she dies. You sue the nursing home for neglect and abuse but the very records that your lawyer needs cannot be obtained under Bush's new rules.

Why would anyone protect the last shred of information that would help protect the elderly, the terminally ill, the most vulnerable in our society?

Now what?

Bed Rail Entrapment and Nursing Home Abuse

According to the Food & Drug Administration, there are about 2.5 million hospital and nursing home beds in the United States.

Between 1985 and 2008, 772 incidents of patients caught, trapped, entangled, or strangled in beds with rails were reported to the FDA. Of these reports, 460 people died, 136 had a nonfatal injury, and 176 were not injured because staff intervened. Most patients were frail, elderly or confused.

Hospital bed and side rail entrapments occur when a patient somehow becomes stuck between the mattress and the rail, a gap created by the bed when it is adjusted, or when the patient becomes disoriented and tries to leave the bed without assistance. Some entrapments are more common than others. Common types of entrapments happen in moveable beds (where the bed can be adjusted, thus creating a gap), in narrow spaces between side rails and the mattress, and in the spaces between the bars or PVC materials that make up the side rails themselves. Further entrapments also may happen if a patient becomes entangled in bedding used on the bed, and then becomes entrapped between the side rail and the bed.

Likewise, entrapments may be more likely to happen in specific parts of the bed. These parts commonly are referred to as entrapment zones. Entrapment zones commonly involve flaws in the relationship between the bed and the mattress in use on the bed. These zones may happen if the mattress is either too long or too short for the bed, or if there is a soft – rather than firm – edge to the mattress.

Entrapments can result in serious injury and death.

Nursing Home Care is an Oxymoron

In a recent survey nursing home deficiencies run rampant as many nursing home residents live in immediate jeopardy and are at risk for harm or death.

There were hundreds of incidents that caused pain or discomfort to nursing-home residents including bed sores and not feeding patients who were not able to eat without assistance.

Nursing home experts said mistakes happen, but the industry has improved its level of care. (Blogger's note: That's a scary thought.) The nursing home industry is among the nation's most regulated and homes can be cited for minor faults to ones resulting in death.

Not every expert agrees that nursing homes have improved their standards. Some think that we now consider the lowest common denominator as acceptable.

Some think that nursing homes are underfunded which account for sub standard care by sub standard employees. Nursing home violations are common, occurring in more than 91 percent of homes and more than 15 percent have serious deficiencies.